“And from bitter people I learned bitter languages”
— Yehuda Amichai (1924 - 2000), from “My Parents’ Migration“
in “The Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai”, edited by Robert Alter
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“I still enjoy fresh and extraordinary experiences.”
— Margaret Atwood, from “Two Solicitudes,” orginally published c. 1998
come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed
— Lucille Clifton, from The Book of Light
If you speak your grief
as the grey-haired
farmers and fisherman do
on the phone connected
to nothing, you may
never stop calling
the wind.
— Jennifer Franklin, from “Wind Phone,” published in Sixth Finch
this body
grows a garden of badly barely healed
feelings
I mean skin I mean
go ahead touch me now
for I am wild
— Leslie Harrison, from “[Touch me now],” The Book of Endings
all this time I have been speaking
to nothing but wildness
and now wildness is answering—
— Kazim Ali, from “Chasm,” The Fortieth Day
Come here, then. Every ditch
has been exalted. We are covered with stars.
Feel how light they are, our lives.
— Lisel Mueller, from “Snow,” The Private Life
It has come to seem
there is no perfect ending.
Indeed, there are infinite endings.
Or perhaps, once one begins,
there are only endings.
— Louise Glück, from “Faithful and Virtuous Night,” Faithful and Virtuous Night
I carry this heart clattering now like a jar full of pebbles
full also of furious wind I carry it like a half-tame bat
all echolocation careen and squeal I carry it like a song
threnody of fear and desire the way it knocks insistent
at the door then lets no one in
— Leslie Harrison, from “And these are the ways we talk to each other,” published in Tupelo Quarterly
I lie in the dark, then I do what I always do,
I move, making space for heartbreak.
Then you move with me, until our bodies touch
in the ruins where I miss aching for a god.
— James Allen Hall, from “Aubade,” Now You’re the Enemy